The only way they can win is to cheat. They don't know what to do otherwise. McAuliffe didn't give a shit what he said because he knew they were going to cheat. He was just frontrunning the assault on parent's that was coming after he won.
Good guys dropped a lot of shit on them, when you think about it, starting a few weeks ago and up to the election. Loudon County, parents as terrorists, obscene spending proposals being shot down with pelosi getting rolled , Let's go Brandon, Poopy Pants Bidan, funding GOF after Fauci said he didn't (then changing the web page), torturing puppies, Obama saying Loudon Rape was much ado about nothing, 450K per illegal, etc. That stuff usually never gets out right before an election if it casts a bad light on dems.
It deteriorated any plan to push polls that show McAuliffe was way ahead, because there's no bullshitting your way out of crowds chanting fuck Joe Bidan at ball games, but you're still stupid enough to have him come to VA to campaign for you, and the rest of the stuff stuck. A lot of help from dweebs Garland and Fauci, too.
I'd say the good guys corralled them into a specific way to cheat and then shut them down. Easy to stop them from winning, just stop them from cheating.
I think the good guys needed VA for the Durham stuff. NJ may be used to prove Murphy cheated. How the fuck does some pub no name spend just a bill and a half to beat the dem Senate honcho, but Murphy wins the governorship in the same election?
Going back to Newsom< I think they had to let a cheat go through, if it was needed by the dems, because the ensuing riots would have shut the state down. Supply crisis now shows that state has way too much influence on total US commerce to be so independent in their state policy. That needs to be fixed, especially since, as I see it, they have the foot soldiers there to riot the place useless whenever they call for one.